GMC promises to reform fitness to practise hearings after new independent adjudicator is axed

The independent body set up to take decisions on whether doctors are fit to practise is to be axed before it has heard its first case, the UK government has decided.

The Office of the Healthcare Professions Adjudicator (OHPA) was due to begin work in April 2011, taking over from the General Medical Council, the UK doctors’ regulator, the role of judging in cases of professional misconduct and deficient professional performance.

An independent body acting as adjudicator, with the GMC continuing to act as prosecutor but not judge, was one of the main recommendations of …